Laundry-package.



C. C. MILLER. LAUNDRY PACKAGE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 5,1915.

Patented June 13, 1916.

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72 A WW many times.

CHARLES C. MILLER, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

LAUNDRY-PACKAGE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 13, mile.

Application filed J am: 5, 1915. Serial N 0. 32,287.

The invention relates to laundry packages.

An item of large expense in all laundries is that necessitated .by the wrapping up of the laundry for delivery purposes. The articles must be protected from dust and dirt as well as injury by distortion and crushing, and it is desirable that the customer shall have a sanitary and convenient means by which he may send his soiled linen to the laundry. Heretofore the usual custom has been to wrap the laundry in paper, the shirts being first inserted in paper covers or protectors. Some laundries also insert in the package a bag, usually a cloth bag, in which the customer may send his soiled linen to the laundry, this method being highly unsanitary since the bag is used Other laundries make use of knock-down boxes which not only require room for storage but also require time in assembling with likelihood -of soiling the handsof the operator who does the packing of the laundry, her hands becoming soiled from accumulated dust on the boxes. Soiled hands, of course, soil the clean linen and require that the linen shall be relaundried. The laundry must be protected in its pack-age from injury by crushing or distortion while being delivered.

The object of m invention is to provide a cheap package or the delivery of laundry in which the laundried articles may be readily and quickly placed without danger of soiling the same, and which by being reinforced in a novel manner shall protect the articles from injury while being delivered, and which is available for the return by the customer of his soiled linen to the laundry.

In the drawings I illustrate the preferred form of my invention and the method of inserting laundried articles therein, the said method being described and claimed in another application Serial No. 1,962 filed January 13, 1915, of which application the present application is a division.

Referring to the drawings Figure 1 is a plan view in perspective of the empty bag; Fig. 2 a plan view in perspective of the reinforcement; Fig. 3 a side elevational view in section showing the method of inserting the reinforcement and laun'dried articles into the bag and Fig. 4 a plan View in perspective of the completed package.

The bag 17 is preferably made of paper, its mouth 20 being normally open and the bottom 21 being, preferably, rectangular, similarly to the well known sugar bag. A reinforcement 16, made of suitable material, as card-board, and bent into the form of a rectangle, is adapted to fit within the bag. The, ends of the reinforcement are substantially the Width of the bag and its two sides are shorter than the sides of the bag so that when inserted into the bag the sides of the reinforcement bear against the sides of the bag or are closely adjacent thereto and one end of the reinforcement bears on the bottom, the other end extending across the top of the bag a suflicient distance within the mouth to enable the portions of the top without the reinforcement to be folded as on dotted lines 22 over the said end to close the mouth. An adhesive tape hang up the bag for the reception of his soiled linen and the delivery thereof to the I collector.

In Fig. 3 I show how'the reinforcement may be inserted into the bag together with the laundried articles. I accomplish this operation by providing a suitable packager or scoop 10 which is secured to a table 12, a rib 11 on the bottom serving to elevate it above the table top. The reinforcement is first placed within the packager and the articles placed on the packager within the reinforcement. The bag is then drawn over the packager'and contents and then removed from the packager, the reinforcement and articles being held within the bag by the hand. I have described my said method more in detail in my said application Serial No. 1,962.

The completed package shown in Fig. 4' is ready for delivery and the articles therein are fully protected from crushing or distortion, since the reinforcement prevents the collapse of the bag, and the bag serves as a most convenient means in which to re- 7 turn soiled linen to the laundry and which is highly sanitary since, after its round trip, it is destroyed, the cost of the bag and reinforcement being very small.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with a bag of a stiff rectangular strip adapted to fit within the bag and reinforce the same, the said strip bearing against the sides and bottom of the bag.

2. The combination with a'bag having a normally open mouth, of a rectangular strip of relatively rigid material having sidemembers slightly less than the length of the bag and end members substantially equal to the width of the bag, the said strip being insertible in the bag to prevent collapse thereof and distortion of the bag contents.

3. The combination of a laundry bag, a continuous rim Within the bag which abuts its bottom and sides and extends across the mouth of the bag, the mouth being adapted to be closed by folding the top of the bag over the adjacent end of the rim.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 3d day of June, 1915.

CHARLES (J. MILLER. 

